2 out of 4 stars
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The Cursed Man by Keith Rommel is the story of Alister Kunkle. For the last 20 years he has been imprisoned in a mental hospital without seeing another soul, but not against his own will. Alister believes that death itself is obsessed with him and will kill anyone that even talks to him, so to spare people from that fate he has chosen seclusion. That all changes when a psychiatrist by the name of Anna Lee comes to the hospital to try to help him. At first Alister dismisses her and thinks she’ll be dead by the next day like the rest of them, but by some miracle that doesn’t happen.
Anna begins treating Alister and he tells her his life’s story, how his grandmother, father and mother died at almost the same time, how his wife drowned their daughter and then killed herself, how all of the doctors, nurses and police officers who tried to help him met with a quick death. However, Anna presents Alister a different story of his life. She tells him different facts about both his past and present situation. Is that it then? Is Alister just a delusion man in a mental hospital, or is there something more going on and Anna is not who she says she is? Is Anna telling the truth or is she trying to fool him?
At first you are sure that Alister’s account of events is accurate, but by the middle you’re stuck between the two worlds, and unable to tell what’s real and what’s not. Due to that it’s hard to tell the correct genre as you’re reading the book. Is this a horror story about a man plagued by a supernatural entity, or a tragic novel about a mentally ill man, or is it both? I’ll leave it to the reader to discover the right answer, but that middle part was definitely my favorite part of the book.
Another great thing about the book is its portrait of mental illness, and all the guilt and grief that comes with loss. What I liked about it was not just what Alister said about his feelings and experiences, but how it was illustrated through various scenes. It’s hard to describe without giving away spoilers, but you really see into his mind through them. If you like stories that deal with mental illness then this book might be a good fit for you.
The biggest issue I had with the book was the lack of vividness in its more bizarre scenes. The normal scenes are the most memorable, but the weirder ones just left me confused about what exactly was going on there. It was hard for me to visualize what was happening, so I can barely remember them now. This is a big flaw for a book that tries to deal with the supernatural and losing one’s sense of reality.
The one thing that I would say to a potential reader is to not judge the book by the first 3/4 of it, because by the end it vastly improves. As I was reading it, the one word that came to my mind was unrealistic. The story, and the people in it, just seemed strange. It was as if the author had no idea what life was really like in a mental hospital. It’s only at the end of the story that a lot of things finally make sense.
Overall, The Cursed Man an interesting story, but it could have been handled better. Because it only gets good at the end I can’t say that I liked it very much, so I give it 2 out of 4 stars.
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The Cursed Man
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I love the cover it is scary and I the summarize of the story is interesting people will love this
